Posts by Charlie Clark

The point of containers is they aren't VMs, yet Microsoft licenses SQL Server in containers as if they were VMs

Agreed, containers are merely "lightweight" VMs. Lightweight only refers to the way the virtualisation is implemented.

American tech goliaths decide innovation is the answer to Chinese 5G dominance, not bans, national security theater

The key part is that they will make the best case they can for their client, even if he is a complete and utter crook.

Enough of them have been convicted in fraud cases to suggest this isn't always the case. And even less "ethical" is when they get involved in lobbying for legislation, which they increasingly help to draft with their clients' best interests in mind.

Re: Open RAN

Here's Wishing…

What happened to R&D?

But behind the threats has also sat an uncomfortable truth: Chinese companies dominate the market in large part because there aren’t many good alternatives: competing products are limited, more expensive and often inferior.

The US made it particularly easy for them: competing but incompatible wireless technologies (CDMA, iDEN, etc.) and vertical integration is the American way but it also stifles competition by making it difficult for users to switch, so less pressure to innovate. Meanwhile, much of the world was looking at how Europe, through the GSMA, promoted interoperability and through this competition. The US then decided that it was cheaper to have stuff made (and by extension) developed in China. The Chinese followed the GSM route (though also used CDMA, I think) to 3G then UMTS then LTE, for which it had a greater need.

O2 be a fly on the wall during BT and Vodafone's video calls: Telefónica's UK biz, Virgin Media officially merge

The roundabout

A while back Telefonica offloaded its cable operations in Germany to Liberty Global which, in turn offloaded them to Vodafone. Only a matter of time before this happens in the UK?

What about the Corona surcharge?

The iMac at 22: How the computer 'too odd to succeed' changed everything ... for Apple, at least

The SGI boxes looked nothing like an iMac!

I never said they did! I loved the SGIs and the NeXTs, which were technically and aesthetically wonderful, but still aimed at "engineers". Apple targeted consumers but were also successful with businesses as a result by showing that a computer doesn't have to be a set of boring brown boxes with lots of cables. (Pleeeease don't look at my office!)

Apple turned the computer into a consumer device. As such they were able to sell them to people who wouldn't have bought a computer otherwise. Removing stuff such as ports and floppy drives made them attractive to a lot people: SWMBO hates my electronic gadgets because of all the cables. SGI was in a completely different market but Apple, like Microsoft before them, managed to use the consumer product to drive business sales.

Personally, I never liked the IMac but putting the computer into the screen also made it a much more portable solution.

Nervous, Adobe? It took 16 years, but open-source vector graphics editor Inkscape now works properly on macOS

I've found Photoline to be very useful when working with PDFs.

Adobe has still failed to manage to port Illustrator to open platforms.

To which particular desktop environment? And how much will people pay to use it? It's cheaper for all concerned for those who need it to install a Windows VM for the purpose.

Re: "starting at £19"

True, but there are plenty of alternatives for bitmap or vector work for around £ 30 as a one off payment. Personally, I've been using Photoline for years as a Photoshop replacement. For anybody working professionally with tools the monthly cost won't really factor (probably less than they spend on their mobile phone) and they like some of the services they get such as online preview. Doesn't work for me but it obviously for some.

Open source desktop software will only ever "succeed" (displace paid incumbents) if it focuses on fit and finish: I still prefer OpenOffice over LibreOffice because of this.

Intel is offering more 14nm Skylake desktop processors, we repeat: More 14nm Skylake desktop processors

Re: Intel has lost it

Then next year we get Zen 4, due to be on 5nm and using DDR5.

As with Intel, those future dates should be viewed with a certain degree of scepticism. Still, it is nice to see a degree of competition at the high end after so many years of little or no choice.

Re: I don't get it...

I seem to remember that 10nm was considered to be a bad idea – you get problems at this scale without sufficient benefits in lower power – which is why other fabs went straigt to 7nm: half the size so lots more transistors on the die, lower power and still the same quantum / RF problems to deal with. This gave Intel an advantage for a few years because of its established 14nm process.

Re: I don't get it...

The laziness and hubris argument doesn't match the reality

Not regarding process technology. Intel was a bit guilty of assuming that it didn't need to do much to continue to succeed in the data centre space, where it made all its profit. And, let's face it, this is where it's still doing very good business. But it repeatedly fluffed mobile and wasted a lot of time trying to compete with nVidia for graphics and waited to long to get into the custom chip business.

The company deserves a lot of criticism but looking at the numbers, I wouldn't mind failing that bady.

Re: Intel has lost it

It's only stuck on 14nm for these clock speeds, but it will be galling to see AMD getting similar speeds on 7nm. That could encourage some customers to replace complete data centres if the power savings are sufficient.

Re: I don't get it...

Moore's law really refers to the number of transistors on the chip. But it was only an observation of improvements in process technology. Clock speeds hit upper limits a long time ago which is why we started seeing multiple cores as a consolation. Intel used to be top of the process game but lost the crown a few years ago as it lost focus chasing after the mobile, machine learning, etc.

Apple on 2020 so far: OK, so iPhone sales are a bit glum. Wearables, music, apps, vids to the rescue... almost

Mr Enderle's staggering analysis

Firms that build physical things will always be more vulnerable until full automation

But robots don't buy things. Anyway, any modern electronics assembly line is close to clean room standards. Though this is more for the benefit of the components than the workers. But a supply-side analysis is flawed anyway, because the problem is going to be weaker demand as more and more people go on short time or lose their jobs. In such situations a new I-Phone might not be top of their priorities.

Cheshire Police celebrates three-year migration to Oracle Fusion by lobbing out tender for system to replace it... one year later

Re: Open Source would solve this problem

What are you talking about? You want them to publish the schema? How's that going to help?

Salt peppered with holes? Automation tool vulnerable to auth bypass: Patch now

Hold your horses

Exposing a Salt master to the internet is not best practice and firewall security should be implemented.

Anything that can be remotely configured using Salt, Ansible, etc. should never publicly allow root login without secure authentication. Generally, however, the scripts are limited to setting new instances up.

Hey bud – how the heck does that stay in your ear? Google emits latest Pixel Buds, plus extra bloatware if you have the matching phone

Re: Wireless

My Jabra Sport headset still has great battery life and has done sterling service for years, mainly giving me navigation instructions while cycling. Unfortunately, it has recently developed a problem with sound generally being lost of on one side. This is probably a dodgy connection but I haven't worked out to fix it. The replacement is a Sony headset (SP500) with external drivers. While the battery life isn't as good, you can get better cheaper, the headset can safely be worn in both ears while allowing me to hear what's going on: traffic, announcements, etc. Great when cycling though less great on a plane…

When I'm in the right environment the sound is also better than the Jabra (but I don't want a sports headset to listen to Ludwig van) and it also seems slightly less sensitive to interference.

Yes, but my Sony's are much cheaper and have better battery life and I really don't mind cable between the earpieces, though it could more stable to stop in catching in m jersey when I twist my neck.

Users can expect to get five hours of playtime between charges, or 2.5 hours of talk-time. That's roughly on-par with Apple's AirPods Pro.

At that price? For something almost designed to get lost? No chance! Also, how do they handle background noise for the wearer when they're out running? I'm pretty impressed with my Sony's handling of this when out cycling. Yes, it means that I don't get the highest fidelity but I'm much more concerned about hearing traffic and announcements around me!

Family meeting! Chocolate Factory makes its business-like video-chat service free to anyone with a Google account

How else do you secure it?

Re: free to anyone with a Google account

Are the other providers any different?

Pimp my PostgreSQL: Swarm64 paints go-faster stripes on open-source database challenger

EXPLAIN ANALYZE is your friend but only if you've set up your database correctly. How many queries rely on stupid "optimisations" because data is nor normalised properly or indexed reasonably?

That said, SQL doesn't necessarily always make writing efficient queries easy, though Common Table Expressions do help take some of the pain out of using subqueries.

Postgres has seen continued uptake since MySQL was sold to Sun and particularly since Sun was sold to Oracle. Though this is somewhat ironic because Oracle is definitely taking better care of MySQL than MySQL AB ever did. The uptake has allowed companies like Enterprise DB, 2nd Quadrant and others to invest in Postgres which has helped make releases better and more predictable and added very important functions for larger installs. It now also has good support on the various cloud platforms for those companies who don't want to invest in DBAs and aren't worried about losing control of their data.

But I guess it's always going to be hard to find developers who are prepared to try and understand how relatiional database systems are supposed to work. Note, this doesn't necessary mean learning all the underlying relational algebra, but being able to define relationships logically and understand the flexibility of making projections from normalised data.

Ranked number four in the database market by DBEngines, PostgreSQL is often left in the shade of fellow open-source stalwarts MySQL and MariaDB.

Only by journos who don't know the difference: Postgres is streets ahead of MySQL in terms or functionality and reliability and the only open source choice for those who want to get off the Oracle bus. And Postgres does this all with a single codebase, ie. no need for different table types for "real" data, no tricy licensing.

Swarm 64 is really impressive for companies that need this kind of throughput – let's face it any FGPA-based system isn't going to be cheap – so banks, etc.

Cosmo Communicator: Phone-laptop hybrid is neat, if niche, tilt at portable productivity

Watch the tumbleweed

Unfortunately, that's the best description for Planet's support. People will be lucky to get 2 OS updates for this… Such a pity because the industrial design is top notch.

Re: Why are you going with Psion comparisons?

What do you think inspired the Nokia Communicator?

The rumor that just won't die: Apple to keep Intel at Arm's length in 2021 with launch of 'A14-powered laptops'

Re: No surprise then

Over the last few years, Intel has struggled mainly with process. Samsung and TSMC are now ahead here, which means more efficent chips.

Re: No surprise then

In 2006 virtualisation of desktop OS was technically possible but not immediately available.

Web pages a little too style over substance? Behold the Windows 98 CSS file

Re: TIFKAM

The Windows "tock" releases are generally shit. Remember Windows Vista and what a kludge of UI crap that was: "people have GPUs now so not only can we punish them by making the UI out of XML, we can also add useless and distracting effects like milk glass".

Well, enough on a large touch screen you soon get a tile overload, akin to too many road signs. And they never did the Material thing. Presumabling rewriting presentation manager yet again after the Windows Vista debacle didn't leave them with much time for niceties!

TIFKAM also had a thought-out standard and has some good aspects to it but it went too far on the flatness, making non-touch UX really awful. It's interesting, and constructive, to compare the design manuals since then with especially Material Design emphasising the importance of visual feedback in elements to support the interface, as has been standard in design manuals for years. I like Material Design not least because the manual includes some "design defence" and examples of what does and doesn't work, so trying to educate and not just dictate.

The use of big, bold tiles based on signage has its place but quickly becomes a problem when you have a lot of them competing for attention: it's okay for passive consumption but poor for highlighting actions. I find the UI of Office 2016 for Mac a refreshing change from the coloured crayon of Office 2010 but I am really struggling with Office 365 for Windows with its stickmen minimalism: the lack of depth is downright confusing.

Cortana, why are you still here? Microsoft makes the long-suffering assistant chattier for more countries with new Windows 10 build

Luckily there is a tool to help you manage that: ShutUp 10.

Thanks to another Reggie for giving the tip.

Python 2 bows out after epic transition. And there was much applause because you've all moved to version 3, right? Uh, right?

Re: The only surprise here..

Both Google and Dropbox made them. Google's was famously known as "unladen swallow" but I think they then shifted to Go for the stuff they were going to use it for. Dropbox pushed MyPy which ended up force-feeding type hints into Python. Some people have backported some stuff to Python 2 but I don't think there's anyone now seriously interested in actively developing a fork. It took a long time but Python 3 is now better for most situations.

Re: why python ?

IIRC I think there are bits of Numpy that offload the calculations to Fortran libraries, which make C look positively slow. But it could be another part of the Python stack. It's certainly not uncommon for Fortran (and C and C++) libaries be wrapped and exposed for use in Python, I know that CERN does this for some the LHC work. Python really excels at this kind of task meaning that the mathematical geniuses write the code that normal scientists without Comp Sci or Maths PhDs get to call from Python. Meaning that stuff is both fast and safe.

Re: Sync -> async in Py3 is way harder than Py2 -> Py3

My understanding is that some of the Trio stuff has been included. But I think this is also par for the course for making such substantive changes to the language. You start with an implementation as specification and work with the feedback. This has been the case for several important features in Python.

I remember that when yield was introduced as a keyword that I really struggled with the generators and would have preferred a different keyword for generators, which is sort of where we're at at the moment. At some point I think the runtime will be good enough to decide when some code is to run asynchronously or not but in the meantime a parallel stack is probably unavoidable.

I'm pretty certain that as soon as it became possible to virtualise architectures, it became cheaper not to migrate code bases. Rewriting a lot of the code written in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s is simply not an option. The solution is virtualise and replace when required.

Re: Sync -> async in Py3 is way harder than Py2 -> Py3

I think this is a sign that's it not really ready for general adoption yet. It has got much better but, most of the time, most of us aren't going to need it.

Re: Python breaking changes

Those kind of gotchas require extensive tests. It then becomes a matter of importing the right feature from __future__ in Python 2 code, and fixing code so that tests run and knowing it will run with Python 3.

Re: Python breaking changes

It's not all about strings and bytes. The work for some C extensions is not non-trivial because they're no good, because they'te non-trivial. At least so I've been told by a Python core developer… ;-)

The switch would have been a real problem if the original Python 3 schedule had been maintained which placed the entire burden of migrating code on the developer: all downside with, at the time, no upside (slower, needs more memory). Fortunately, the PSF sponsored the migration of some popular libraries and frameworks and in the meantime, for the few projects that haven't made the change alternatives have become available: the large number of libraries as open source helping here. One notable example was pillow, the fork of PIL which Fredrik had abandoned.

Re: Python breaking changes

Most code that runs on Python 2.7 will run on Python 3 without too much work. However, if you have C-extensions and other low-level stuff the amount of work required to migrate can be considerable. I know of a couple of libraries that won't make the change because of this. Though at the same time it should be noted that this also means that their user base has shrunk with time as other solutions become available.

Then again, in many environments Python 2.7 can be expected to run reliably for many years, just as all the Cobol and Fortran code continues to do. Anything with public networking code is likely to struggle over time.

Re: why python ?

I can not see what python3 does that perl does not do.

For system administration, probably nothing. But there are now many problem domains for which there are outstanding Python libraries: biology, statistics, engineering, etc. And of course, "machine learning" and "AI".

And then, of course, the killer reason for many switching to Python: maintainability because readable. Sure, some people love their own perl code but hate others'…

YMMV but I was just trying to answer the question.

Realme's X50m is a decently specced 5G phone – for the price of a 1995 Nissan Micra

Marketing

Typically, 5G handsets have commanded something of a premium, thanks to the cost of the modems, plus the esteem of having perceptibly faster mobile internet.

The marketing departments demanded the new name. In fact, in many situations people won't notice the difference. Good 4G networks won't have contention problems and shitty 5G ones will. On a good 4G network you can already stream video even in reasonably crowded places and on a shitty one you'll be twiddling your thumbs all the time as the connection drops.

Zero-click, zero-day flaws in iOS Mail 'exploited to hijack' VIP smartphones. Apple rushes out beta patch

Re: "use another client"

Except, like browsers, Apple doesn't really like you using other e-mail clients on their darling devices.

ICE cold: Microsoft's GitHub wrings hands over US prez's Trump immigration ban plan

Re: Invisible enemy LOL

You are Adam Smith and I claim my £5!

Re: It is called playing to the voters

He says a lot of things. Getting people to overreact to his mutterings on Twitter is one of his main aims. Always worth looking at what any actual Executive Order says and whether it stands the inevitable judicial review.

Meanwhile, one of the results of the anti-immigration policy is, surprisingly not an uptick in the amount of people, particularly from the underrepresented demographic groups, training as IT professionals, but the offshoring of more development to places where these can be found in abundance.

Who can we count on to slow Huawei's continuous growth? US prez Donald Trump and COVID-19

Re: With Trump & Co. still apparently on a suicide mission

Not sure about about a second wave given how low infections are in some states, it will just continue. Even so, the total deaths are likely to be close to that a of a heavy flu pandemic (we have these regularly) but they're heavily skewed with the elderly and especially the poor over-represented.

Contact-tracing or contact sport? Defections and accusations emerge among European COVID-chasing app efforts

Re: Testing! testing!

Your source is interesting, and vastly disagrees with this:

Totals are the same on both. SVT is the national broadcaster. Figures are updated in near real time.

Infection rate rate of increase is linear, which is probably the most important number, though no guarantee this won't pick up again. Count for the weekend is in and last week they were moaning that other countries weren't counting the dead in retirement homes properly.

I just wish broadcasters would cover this say 1/10 th as much as they do the horror stories. The antibody tests will drive policy in Scandinavia.